Nutritive value of cereal and cassava diets for growing and fattening pigs in Nigeria

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Abstract
In Expt I 9 home-bred pigs were fed individually in metabolic cages on well-balanced diets having as the main source of carbohydrate guinea corn in group A, boiled cassava in group B and raw cassava in group C. Live-weight gain and efficiency of food utilization in the different groups were measured. In Expt 2 growing pigs were given a balanced diet with either raw or boiled cassava as the main source of carbohydrate. Live-weight gain and efficiency of food conversion were measured and the metabolism of N, Ca and P was studied in balance trials lasting for 14 days. Gain in weight and food utilization were better on the diets containing cassava than on that with guinea corn. With young pigs, raw cassava gave somewhat better results than boiled cassava if the amount in the diet did not exceed 42% of the dry matter content, but when the level was about 50% of the dry-matter content weight gain was not satisfactory unless the cassava was boiled. Cassava, even when boiled, included as 60% of the diet resulted in unsatisfactory weight gain. Raw cassava at a level of 42% of the diet also tended to lead to better retention of N than did boiled cassava, which in all probability accounted for the slightly better live-weight gain of the pigs given the raw-cassava diet. However, the protein of the feed was better digested when the cassava was boiled than when it was raw. The diet containing the raw cassava seemed to have led to an appreciable reduction in apparent digestibility and in the net absorption of Ca and P. It is suggested that the greater the quantity of cassava included in the diet the lower is the availability of the dietary N, Ca and P to the pig, a fact which may be partly responsible for the poor live-weight gain of the pigs fed on a diet containing a high proportion of cassava root.

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